Elif Sarican

“In the UK we have a void, I would say the UK is in chaos. The illusion of safety is created and therefore people welcome the extra surveillance because that’s a way of coping with chaos.” ~ Elif Sarican

Elif Sarican is a Kurdish rights activist. She comes to HowTheLightGetsIn shortly after her visit Rojava in northern Syria, where the Kurdish liberation movement has established a unique political system based on direct democracy.

The Rojava revolution is the experiment of direct democracy, including ecological sustainability, with women’s liberation at its center. All of this is happening, whilst at the same time they are fighting the so called Islamic State. Sarican has said that the one of the most remarkable things happening in the Rojava is how people there are tackling the situation. The idea that humans are naturally competitive is shattered by the evidence that people actually naturally cooperate, even when they are in a war zone.